Today, Feb. 19, 2015 is the Chinese New Year, marking the start of the Year of the Sheep in the Chinese zodiac. Some stores in Barrio Chino in downtown San José sell sheep figures which, according to their owners, are going fast.

Fortune tellers in Hong Kong say that the Year of the Sheep, also known as the Year of the Goat, should be generally calmer than the previous Year of the Horse, which was characterized by catastrophic international air accidents, brutal terror attacks, global political upheaval, a resurgent Ebola virus and war.